Electric vehicles (hereinafter simply referred to as vehicles), for example, electric-powered automobiles, hybrid vehicles, range extender vehicles, and fuel cell vehicles, each include a drive motor and a battery that supplies power to the motor. Such a vehicle further includes a DC/DC converter that steps down the voltage of the battery to apply the voltage to an air conditioner, various ECUs, and other units. High-voltage equipment such as the battery and the DC/DC converter generates heat according to travel load, and the performance changes in response to changes in temperature. This creates the need for temperature control, in particular, cooling, of the high-voltage equipment. Various documents describe temperature control of high-voltage equipment.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2013-184562 discloses a system capable of supplying air inside or outside a vehicle cabin to an IPU (Intelligent Power Unit) including high-voltage equipment. The system has a configuration including the IPU and an air conditioner (HVAC) directly connected via a high-voltage fan, and operates the high-voltage fan to supply air cooled by an evaporator to the IPU.
Japanese Patent No. 4788540 discloses a system including a conditioned air generating unit composed of, for example, a Peltier element as an air conditioner, a first fan that supplies air into a seat, and a second fan that supplies air to an energy storage device, the fans being disposed downstream of the conditioned air generating unit. The system determines the air flow rate of the second fan in response to an air conditioning request to the second fan with the sum of the air flow rate of the first fan and the air flow rate of the second fan being maintained at the maximum air flow rate or below while higher priority is given to the air supply into the seat. According to the system, the temperature of the energy storage device is controlled while the comfort of occupants is ensured even when the air conditioning performance is limited.